Imagen y sexualidad: El uso de la fotografía en el campo de la medicina legal durante la segunda mitad del siglo XIX mexicano

Abstract

This article addresses the use of photography in legal medicine in the nineteenth century, particularly in cases related to certain sexual abnormalities. It is important to point out that medicine stood out as one of the professions that contributed to regulate and control the body. It was of primary interest for professionals to establish objective criteria to differentiate normal and abnormal sexual anatomy. Therefore, around the scientific effort implemented to build objective knowledge, photographic images started to occupy an important place in the dissemination of research. The relative objectivity of the photographic image is demonstrated through the analysis of a case of hermaphroditism in which the moral and social burden of symbols promoted by nineteenth century Mexican doctors is evident.